Earthbound
The Leelee Sobieski Interview by Paul Fischer

The likeness is uncanny. Her hair might be longer, her nose a tad shorter, but look at Leelee Sobieski closely and what emerges is a younger version of Helen Hunt. It's a resemblance to close for comfort, and a comparison that this beautiful young actress can do without. "Until I was doing press for Here on Earth, nobody had mentioned it - so thanks." In such a short period of time, Sobieski has emerged as one of Hollywood's new breed of young performers. She's exquisitely beautiful, hauntingly so, with clear features, her long blonde hair often getting in her eyes. She's a family girl, enjoys a close bond with her parents, with whom she lives in New York. "I don't think of them as my parents; more as my best friends. I just love talking to them", she says wistfully. She shares her father's passion for art, and the two will often pain together, that is, when she's not being offered lots of money to act in films. When we spoke, Sobieski was recovering from a cold and began apologetically. "So if I break out coughing I hope you'll understand. I'm not a huge smoker - it's just a cold", she hastens to add.

Leelee is tall, close to six feet and counting, and loves chocolate, "which is why I probably have so little blood in my brain," she admits smilingly. "Maybe that's why I'm a wacko!" But a successful wacko at that.

Life has been good to Ms Sobieski, a recent Emmy nominee for Joan of Arc. The young actress, rumoured to be receiving $2m for her next film has been on a roll since making her debut in the 1997 family film Jungle 2 Jungle, Sobieski's recognisability has steadily increased through roles in the meteor movie Deep Impact, Merchant-Ivory's A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, the Drew Barrymore comedy Never Been Kissed, the TV miniseries Joan of Arc, in the late Stanley Kubrick's psycho-sexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut, and her latest flick, the romantic Here on Earth. The young star admits to having mixed feelings at the escalation of her career. "To me it's shocking, exciting, strange, bizarre, and why me, and not a teacher?" she finally questions. But ultimately, "it's all very exciting."

Smart and incessantly thoughtful, she is mature far beyond her physical age, clearly knowing precisely what to look for in amidst the plethora of movie offers that come her way. "I look for each project, to be different, for each CHARACTER to be different, for each film to be both small and big-budget, mean girl, nice girl and smart girl." In her latest flick, Here on Earth, Sobieski plays a dying adolescent in a small country town from a poor family, torn between the love of her childhood sweetheart (Josh Hartnett) and the tough rich kid with a chip on his shoulder (Chris Klein). Her character definitely falls into the actress's 'nice girl character: She's sweet, vulnerable and loves poetry. No wonder she can relate to her. "She's the kind of character whose friendship I'd like, because she's very nice, smart, warm, has an understanding of life and giving towards the people she loves."

Sobieski has this strange habit of collecting the hair of the co-stars with which she works. She got hold of Tom and Nicole's hair during Eyes Wide Shut, but alas, forgot to collect Chris and Josh's hair while shooting Here on Earth. "I didn't get anybody's hair on this movie because I simply forgot," Leelee said. "Even though it was in every single magazine in the world, I forgot to ask for hair. It just blew right over my head, and so today I got Josh and Chris," she says laughingly. And yes, there they were, two plastic bags with hair samples."

While she played a virgin in Joan of Arc, in this movie, Sobieski has some passionate moments, including one very, long kiss. "We used to do this one kiss at 2 in the morning, and I was so tired I just had to have some coffee to keep me awake. Chris [Klein] doesn't like the taste of coffee, so I would wear this mandarin lip balm, because he likes oranges, to make the kisses pleasurable for him. By the end of the filming I had consumed, like, this pot of mandarin lip balm. If you put it on my lips now, I'll probably throw up. I just had so much of this stuff." It's a tough life, but one she enjoys living just the same. Next up, Sobieski throws out the nice girl image once and for all. The movie is Squelch, from director John Dahl. "My character in Squelch is, like, 'the girl': The girl with the boobs and the butt. The girl with the boobs and the butt goes to college and likes photography, but she's still a girl with boobs and butt. She's 'the girl', she's the girl in the movie, she's the sexual object. But I was happy to play that sexual object for John Dahl."

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